Dana Point trolley may start rolling next year

DANA POINT – Residents may see a new trolley system running through the city in 2014, thanks to a new funding opportunity through the county's transit authority.

Dana Point is one of five cities to apply for funding from the Orange County Transportation Authority's Project V – which encourages the development of local transportation to meet community needs, according to Transportation Authority documents. If funds are allocated to Dana Point, the city would develop a summer trolley system and a series of shuttle routes, according to the city's resolution.

Laguna Beach has had a summer trolley system since the 1970s and Anaheim's city council approved plans for a $319 million street car system in November. Laguna Beach also applied for funding through Project V, along with Huntington Beach, Lake Forest and La Habra.

With the Project V funding, the county transit agency can allocate money to seven or eight cities over five years for local transportation systems. Each city can receive a maximum of $525,000 a year for five years, with the potential for a program extension, according to agency documents.

The review process is competitive and the transit authority is reviewing the applications, said spokeswoman Laura Scheper. The Transportation Authority will announce funding in late June, Scheper said.

Public Works and Engineering Director Brad Fowler has been working on Dana Point's application for the past three months.

"I was pretty much the guy," Fowler said. "It was pretty much my baby."

The Dana Point application proposes the building of 15 bus stops in the city. These stops would be used for trolley and shuttle routes throughout the year including a summer trolley system down Pacific Coast Highway, a summer shuttle between Dana Hills High School and the harbor and some year-round special events shuttles. The city has proposed these transportation systems operate free of charge.

"As a resort city and a harbor city, we have many guests and we have many residents that use the harbor and Pacific Coast Highway, particularly in the summertime and during events," Fowler said. "This will help reduce theÃ¯Â¿Â½ amount of vehicles and their issues on the road, whether it be congestion or pollution."

This isn't the first time Dana Point has applied for county transit funding. In 2008 the city applied for funding for a tri-city trolley with San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano through the county transit agency's Project S – a project aimed at improving commuter transportation. The city did not receive the funding, however, Fowler said, because it was working on serving visitors rather than commuters.

Fowler, who has worked for the city for eight years, said he has worked extensively with the Transportation Authority and continually expressed Dana Point's transit needs to the agency. When the transit authority reached out to him about Project V, he immediately began working on the application, he said, and is confident the city will receive funding as it is more suited to the city's needs than Project S was.

"I think we have an excellent chance," he said. "We have a good application"

The applications will be evaluated on a scoring system based on criteria such as the local and regional benefit, the area served and project readiness.

If Dana Point receives funding, Fowler said, the city will need to spend the rest of the year building the bus stops and then the trolley and shuttle systems would be in place starting the summer of 2014.

"People really won't notice much difference until next summer, in 2014, when they notice a trolley running up and down Pacific Coast Highway," he said.

For the first year, Dana Point is asking for $120,000 to build the bus stops and $260,000 for shuttle operation and maintenance. There is an estimated cost of $75,000 for startup marketing and advertising the city would have to pay for, but Dana Point also has $1 million in Coastal Transit Program funds that can be spent at a rate of $100,000 a year.

Because of this, no general funds would have to be used in the implementation of this program and it would cut out the annual $15,000 in general funds that the city already spends on shuttles for special events like the Festival of Whales.

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